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Thursday, April 19, 2012

Chicken Pot Pie!

Yum! Homemade, piping hot, crusty pot pie! It really hit the spot yesterday evening when it was rainy and chilly. We had seconds and I admit that I entertained thoughts of thirds later in the evening. JD and I had a discussion on what we thought made a great pot pie the other day. Both of us agreed that we like ours surround by crust. Not the kind that you dump the chicken and veggies into a casserole and top with a little crust. We weren't saying there's anything wrong with those, they just don't do it for us.

So yesterday while it was raining and there wasn't a possibility of doing anything outside, I got in the kitchen and played around with the ingredients I had in the pantry and came up with this recipe. We loved it and hope you will too!

Ingredients:

1/2 of thirty two ounce bag frozen mixed vegetables

1/3 cup chicken broth (I used low sodium.)

1 1/2 cups cooked, chopped chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 pie crusts. You can use the kind from the grocery store freezer or the kind from the can that you roll out. I used one frozen crust and one that I made to top the pie with. I will say that the top crust that was homemade was way better than the store bought. I have included the recipe for the homemade crust, which is a one crust recipe that can be easily doubled and divided for a top and bottom crust. I'll stop rambling about the crust now, getting on my own nerves...

Pour half of a thirty two ounce bag into a large microwavable bowl.

Add 1/3 cup of chicken broth and microwave on high for six minutes.

Chop the chicken into bite size pieces.

Add the chicken, soup, salt and pepper to the vegetables and mix well.

This is the store bought crust. If you use one of these for your bottom crust, follow the package directions for baking an empty crust. The directions on my crust package were to prick the bottom and sides with a fork and bake for 12 minutes at 400 degrees. I covered the edges with foil so that I wouldn't have to worry about them getting too brown when I cooked the whole pie. Let the crust cool completely and don't add the filling until you're ready to bake the pie.

For homemade crust:1 cup sifted all purpose flour1/2 teaspoon salt1/3 cup shortening2 tablespoons ice cold water, really cold. Place ice cubes into a cup add, water and let it sit in the fridge until you're ready to add it.Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Add the salt to the flour and whisk well.

Add half the shortening, cutting it into the flour mixture until it's coarse, like cornmeal.

Add the remaining shortening and cut it into the mixture with a fork, until it looks like the photo above.

Add the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, and blend with a fork.

After adding the second tablespoon of water, keep using the fork to blend until it 's smooth.

Place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap to roll out, or roll out on a floured work surface.

Place the cooled crust onto a baking pan and fill with the chicken mixture.

While the dough is still on the plastic wrap, fold it in half and lay on top of the pie.

Then unfold it to cover the pie. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top crust has turned golden brown.

So good! Please excuse my baking pan. It's very, very old, but still my favorite.Focus on the pie instead!

Serve with romaine lettuce and creamy Parmesan dressing. I promise this one is a winner!